Do Ethicists and Political Philosophers Vote More Often Than Other Professors?

If philosophical moral reflection improves moral behavior, one might expect ethics professors to behave morally better than socially similar non-ethicists. Under the assumption that forms of political engagement such as voting have moral worth, we looked at the rate at which a sample of professional ethicists—and political philosophers as a subgroup of ethicists—voted in eight years’ worth of elections. We compared ethicists’ and political philosophers’ voting rates with the voting rates of three other groups: philosophers not specializing in ethics, political scientists, and a comparison group of professors specializing in neither philosophy nor political science. All groups voted at about the same rate, except for the political scientists, who voted about 10–15% more often. On the face of it, this finding conflicts with the expectation that ethicists will behave more responsibly than non-ethicists

Expression of neurogenin3 reveals an islet cell precursor population in the pancreas

Differentiation of early gut endoderm cells into the endocrine cells forming the pancreatic islets of Langerhans depends on a cascade of gene activation events controlled by transcription factors including the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins. To delineate this cascade, we began by establishing the position of neurogenin3, a bHLH factor found in the pancreas during fetal development. We detect neurogenin3 immunoreactivity transiently in scattered ductal cells in the fetal mouse pancreas, peaking at embryonic day 15.5. Although not detected in cells expressing islet hormones or the islet transcription factors Isl1, Brn4, Pax6 or PDX1, neurogenin3 is detected along with early islet differentiation factors Nkx6.1 and Nkx2.2, establishing that it is expressed in immature cells in the islet lineage. Analysis of transcription factor-deficient mice demonstrates that neurogenin3 expression is not dependent on neuroD1/BETA2, Mash1, Nkx2.2, Nkx6.1, or Pax6. Furthermore, early expression of neurogenin3 under control of the Pdx1 promoter is alone sufficient to drive early and ectopic differentiation of islet cells, a capability shared by the pancreatic bHLH factor, neuroD1/BETA2, but not by the muscle bHLH factor, MyoD. However, the islet cells produced in these transgenic experiments are overwhelmingly α cells, suggesting that factors other than the bHLH factors are required to deviate from a default α cell fate. These data support a model in which neurogenin3 acts upstream of other islet differentiation factors, initiating the differentiation of endocrine cells, but switching off prior to final differentiation. The ability to uniquely identify islet cell precursors by neurogenin3 expression allows us to determine the position of other islet transcription factors in the differentiation cascade and to propose a map for the islet cell differentiation pathway

Empirical Relationships Among Five Types of Well-Being

Philosophers, psychologists, economists and other social scientists continue to debate the nature of human well-being. We argue that this debate centers around five main conceptualizations of well-being: hedonic well-being, life satisfaction, desire fulfillment, eudaimonia, and non-eudaimonic objective-list well-being. Each type of well-being is conceptually different, but are they empirically distinguishable? To address this question, we first developed and validated a measure of desire fulfillment, as no measure existed, and then examined associations between this new measure and several other well-being measures. In addition, we explored associations among all five types of well-being. We found high correlations among all measures of well-being, but generally correlations did not approach unity, even when correcting for unreliability. Furthermore, correlations between well-being and related constructs (e.g., demographics, personality) depended on the type of well-being measured. We conclude that empirical findings based on one type of well-being measure may not generalize to all types of well-being

Sphingosine-1-phosphate as a key player of insulin secretion induced by high-density lipoprotein treatment.

Beta cell failure is one of the most important features of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). High-density lipoprotein (HDL) has been proposed to improve β-cell function. However, the mechanisms involved in this process are still poorly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the contribution of sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) in the impact of HDL treatment on insulin secretion by pancreatic β-cells and to determine its mechanisms. Primary cultures of β-cells isolated from rat were treated with or without HDL in the presence or absence of S1P pathway inhibitors and insulin secretion response was analyzed. The S1P content of HDL (HDL-S1P) isolated from T2DM patients was analyzed and correlated to the HDL-induced insulin secretion. The expression of genes involved in the biosynthesis of the insulin was also evaluated. HDL as well as S1P treatment enhanced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion (GSIS). In HDL isolated from T2DM patients, while HDL-S1P was strongly correlated to its pro-secretory capacity (r = 0.633, p = 0.005), HDL-cholesterol and apolipoprotein AI levels were not. HDL-induced GSIS was blocked by the S1P1/3 antagonist but not by the S1P2 antagonist, and was also accompanied by increased intracellular S1P in β-cells. We also observed that HDL improved GSIS without significant changes in expression levels of insulin biosynthesis genes. Our present study highlights the importance HDL-S1P in GSIS in T2DM patients and demonstrates that HDL induces insulin secretion by a process involving both intra- and extra-cellular sources of S1P independently of an effect on insulin biosynthesis genes

Offscreen and in the chair next to your: conversational agents speaking through actual human bodies

his paper demonstrates how to interact with a conversational agent that speaks through an actual human body face-to-face and in person (i.e., offscreen). This is made possible by the cyranoid method: a technique involving a human person speech shadowing for a remote third-party (i.e., receiving their words via a covert audio-relay apparatus and repeating them aloud in real-time). When a person shadows for an artificial conversational agent source, we call the resulting hybrid an “echoborg.” We report a study in which people encountered conversational agents either through a human shadower face-to-face or via a text interface under conditions where they assumed their interlocutor to be an actual person. Our results show that the perception of a conversational agent is dramatically altered when the agent is voiced by an actual, tangible person. We discuss the potential implications this methodology has for the development of conversational agents and general person perception research

Are intuitions about moral relevance susceptible to framing effects?

Various studies have reported that moral intuitions about the permissibility of acts are subject to framing effects. This paper reports the results of a series of experiments which further examine the susceptibility of moral intuitions to framing effects. The main aim was to test recent speculation that intuitions about the moral relevance of certain properties of cases might be relatively resistent to framing effects. If correct, this would provide a certain type of moral intuitionist with the resources to resist challenges to the reliability of moral intuitions based on such framing effects. And, fortunately for such intuitionists, although the results can’t be used to mount a strident defence of intuitionism, the results do serve to shift the burden of proof onto those who would claim that intuitions about moral relevance are problematically sensitive to framing effects

Parallel Retention of Pdx2 Genes in Cartilaginous Fish and Coelacanths

The Pdx1 or Ipf1 gene encodes an important homeodomain-containing protein with key roles in pancreas development and function. Mutations in human PDX1 are implicated in developmental defects and disease of the pancreas. Extensive research, including genome sequencing, has indicated that Pdx1 is the only member of its gene family in mammals, birds, amphibians, and ray-finned fish, and with the exception of teleost fish, this gene forms part of the ParaHox gene cluster along with Gsx1 and Cdx2. The ParaHox cluster, however, is a remnant of a 4-fold genome duplication; the three other ParaHox paralogues lack a Pdx-like gene in all vertebrate genomes examined to date. We have used bacterial artificial chromosome cloning and synteny analysis to show that the ancestor of living jawed vertebrates in fact had more ParaHox genes, including two Pdx genes (Pdx1 and Pdx2). Surprisingly, the two Pdx genes have been retained in parallel in two quite distantly related lineages, the cartilaginous fish (sharks, skates, and chimeras) and the Indonesian coelacanth, Latimeria menadoensis. The Pdx2 gene has been lost independently in ray-finned fish and in tetrapods

Insulin secretion response during oral glucose tolerance test is related to low cardiorespiratory fitness in obese adolescents

Background: The obesity paradox refers to a category of subjects who may be less prone to develop co-morbidities, such as type 2 diabetes. Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) has been identified as one of the key factors. We aimed at exploring the difference in insulin metabolism between fit and unfit obese adolescents. Methods: We recruited 22 obese adolescents and assessed CRF during an incremental treadmill test. According to a cut-off at 80% of predicted maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max), subjects were separated into low or normal CRF. Body composition was determined by densitometry. Serum levels of insulin were measured sequentially during an oral glucose tolerance test and insulin secretion responses were calculated. Results: Compared to adolescents with normal CRF, the ones with low CRF had higher insulin resistance indices (p=0.023) and insulin secretion response (p=0.010), independently of the body mass index z-score. Conclusions: Interventions in obese adolescents should focus on the maintenance or improvement of CRF to at least 80% of predicted VO2max. Indeed, this cut-off was significantly related to insulin secretion responses, independently of the adiposity level. A CRF above the proposed cut-off may prevent the development of insulin resistance

Against dispositionalism: belief in cognitive science

Dispositionalism about belief has had a recent resurgence. In this paper we critically evaluate a popular dispositionalist program pursued by Eric Schwitzgebel. Then we present an alternative: a psychofunctional, representational theory of belief. This theory of belief has two main pillars: that beliefs are relations to structured mental representations, and that the relations are determined by the generalizations under which beliefs are acquired, stored, and changed. We end by describing some of the generalizations regarding belief acquisition, storage, and change

Nietzsche’s Epistemic Perspectivism

Nietzsche offers a positive epistemology, and those who interpret him as a skeptic or a mere pragmatist are mistaken. Instead he supports what he calls per- spectivism. This is a familiar take on Nietzsche, as perspectivism has been analyzed by many previous interpreters. The present paper presents a sketch of the textually best supported and logically most consistent treatment of perspectivism as a first- order epistemic theory. What’s original in the present paper is an argument that Nietzsche also offers a second-order methodological perspectivism aimed at enhancing understanding, an epistemic state distinct from knowledge. Just as Descartes considers and rejects radical skepticism while at the same time adopting methodological skepticism, one could consistently reject perspectivism as a theory of knowledge while accepting it as contributing to our understanding. It is argued that Nietzsche’s perspectivism is in fact two-tiered: knowledge is perspectival because truth itself is, and in addition there is a methodological perspectivism in which distinct ways of knowing are utilized to produce understanding. A review of the manner in which understanding is conceptualized in contemporary epistemology and philosophy of science serves to illuminate how Nietzsche was tackling these ideas